Without Him
by ALookIntoMyWorld
Summary: (Previously titled "It's a wonderful Life") Kai begins to question what the point of his life is anyway; all he seems to do is mess things up. The world would have been better off without him in it, right? I do not own Ninjago or the characters from the show.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, yes it is actually me returning after nine months! I've had a lot of stuff going on this year, but I've been getting notifications of people reading my fanfics and I thought I'd write another? It is my intentions to update this one . . . at some point. I can't promise it will be super soon, but hopefully. On with the story!**

There had been rumours in Ninjago City of a new menace on the rise, unnamed and unidentifiable. Whoever this guy ("or gal!" exclaims Nya) was, he was kidnapping people left and right with no apparent pattern. One day a police officer would go missing, the next a seemingly random child and on and on this continued. Everyone was baffled and clueless as to who this person was and as the fear began to rise, so did the Ninja. As the protectors of the land, it was up to them to get to the bottom of who this person could be and stop them, simple enough.

"But using one of us as bait is a horrible idea!" Jay remarked.

"Hate to admit it, but he's right," agreed Cole.

"I know, I know," Lloyd said, "but it's the best plan we have and the situation is getting out of hand. Once our criminal is in the open he won't even have a chance to kidnap anyone; we'll be on him and take him down for good."

"But who shall play the part of bait?" Zane inquired.

"I will," Nya said.

"But—" Kai began.

"No, listen," she continued, "there's probably the most chances of our criminal coming with me as bait. I'll play the stereotypical damsel in distress which none of you can do. And I will be fine, Kai, I can take of myself, you know."

"Yeah I know . . ."

"Okay then it's settled. Tonight we will hide out in the car while Nya pretends to take a leisurely stroll through the city," said Lloyd.

"Great," Cole said, "it's a foolproof plan, what could go wrong?"

 **Sorry it's so short, but I wanted to be able to post something tonight. The next chapters will be longer than this one. Thank you for reading and I hope you will continue on! Please review what you think as I adore reading through your opinions!**

 **God bless!**


	2. Chapter 2

"Ugh, we've been waiting here for _hours_ ," Jay whined and for once in his life was not exaggerating. The ninja had indeed been parked for hours beside a sidewalk along the park where Nya was "casually" sitting on a bench, and they were all getting quite restless. The only other people who seemed to be out were a few passersby and a lady selling perfume on the opposite sidewalk.

"Maybe whoever this criminal is isn't coming," Cole said.

Kai, in the drivers seat, had his window rolled down part way to tell Nya to come back when he spotted a shady looking figure slinking around. This person was obviously a man; he had a strong build and an unkempt looking beard. Spotting Nya through his greasy hair, this man walked up to her and was standing way too close to her for comfort.

"It is him," Zane whispered.

Kai and Jay were made extremely anxious by this, but Lloyd reassured the boys that Nya could handle herself; she was a ninja after all. The man then grabbed Nya's arm and Kai moved to get out of the car.

"Just wait, Kai, Nya didn't give us the signal yet," Lloyd said from the backseat. No one was sitting in the passenger's seat as the team wanted to keep their mission as inconspicuous as possible. Nya was supposed to signal by snapping her fingers when she thought it was the best opportunity for the others to apprehend the man.

Clearly agitated, Kai returned to his position. He hated to see his little sister in any kind of uncomfortable situation, regardless to if she had agreed to or not. However, Kai's temper got the better of him the second the man carelessly yanked Nya up and grabbed her chin in his big, dirty hands. Ignoring his teammates protests, Kai leapt out of the car with uncharacteristic speed and ran towards Nya, yelling profanities at the man. The red ninja did not care about the other ninja yelling at him; he was not going to put Nya in harm's way for some stupid mission.

After a few fireballs had been thrown at him, the man quickly ran off and Kai tightly embraced Nya. Nya, slightly upset about the situation she had been in (who wouldn't be?), gratefully returned her brother's hug for a few seconds until she began to squirm and pull away. Thinking she was just being a typical little sibling who was put off by any older sibling affection, Kai hugged her tighter.

"No, Kai, stop it! Look! The car!"

Relinquishing his grasp on Nya, Kai turned to find the lady who had been selling perfume with a breathing mask over her mouth and nose driving off in the car that he had left open and still running, some sort of gas seeping through the windows.

"Oh no," Kai muttered as he ran off, chasing the car which still contained his now presumably unconscious friends.

There was nothing Kai could do but chase after the car and yell, despite the fact that he knew there was no way he could catch up. If he threw fire at it, there was a chance of the car flipping or catching on fire from the gas and Kai did not want to risk harming or killing his friends. Only did he stop running when he heard a yell from behind him.

"Nya!"

Kai again was too late. The same man from before had Nya tightly gripped and into the back of a white van which quickly drove off before Kai could reach them. Kai again chased after the van, yelling and panting, only to be worn out. He was then left all alone in the middle of the street and in the dark. Kai swore to himself and said:

"Kai, you idiot! That couldn't have gone worse!"

 **So what did you all think? Please leave a review telling me. Also I may change the title so if you have any suggestions, I'd be very open to hear them!**

 **Thank you so much for reading and for all the reviews that were left by The Mayor of Ninjago City, Kairocksrainbow, TheAmberShadow, Some1, and AutumnGreentheWriter! All reviews are very special to me.**

 **The Mayor of Ninjago City: Thank you! It's good to be back! (I should have used the "Garmadon's back baby!" quote)**

 **God bless!**


	3. Chapter 3

After his initial shock, Kai began to drive back to the Bounty, quite alone. How could he have messed up the plan so much? How could he have let his entire team, his entire family, get captured? How could he have been so reckless like always? Why couldn't it have been him?

Kai let out a yell of frustration and slammed on the breaks of the car. It was unlikely anyone else would be driving on the same back road at night, but even if that were not the case, the short tempered ninja would not have cared. As the anger boiled inside him, Kai growled and quickly tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. He wanted nothing more than to release his full fury on his friends' kidnappers. If only Kai knew where those villains took the other ninja, he would storm in there right now and . . . and . . . and probably get captured as well which the more logical, yet less vocal, side to Kai's mind pointed out.

As much as he did not want to agree with it, Kai knew his mind was telling him the truth; there was nothing he could immediately do that would be of any help. Kai got out of the car, slamming the door behind him, and gave a final yell of frustration as he kicked the tire. Now that his tantrum was over, Kai leaned against the side of the car and slid down to sit on the ground.

Why? Why was it him of all people to be left behind? Any other of the ninja could have easily come up with a plan or something by now to save the day. Zane could have done some rapid calculations and research to find out exactly where the ninja had been taken and then be able to execute a well thought out plan of rescue. Cole could have stopped the vans with his super strength or blast his way through whatever type of fortress the others were being held in. Jay could have whipped up some sort of machine that located the missing ninja while using his positive thinking to carry him through his plan. Nya could have used one of her many gadgets that frankly, Kai did not understand to help locate and recover the rest of the team; she would have come up with some sort of unexpected but amazing plan as always. And Lloyd could have used the wisdom that is beyond his years combined with his power to easily defeat the criminals and outsmart them.

But Kai? What was he supposed to do? He was not good with plans or gadgets or strategies or any of that. Jay always was the one who joked around saying that he was the most useless, but Kai disagreed. In that moment Kai felt like he himself was the most useless.

Maybe he was not cut out to be a ninja; it's not like he even wanted to be a ninja in the first place. Ninja were supposed to be clever and Kai certainly did not feel clever, especially since his emotions seemed to often get the best of him. Ninja were supposed to be selfless and Kai did have a tendency to act selfishly more often than not. Ninja were supposed to work as a team and look out for each other and had Kai done any of that tonight? The answer is a big no.

With a sigh Kai slowly stood up and was about to get back into the car when he heard some rustling in a tree accompanied by a "Help! Help!"

"Hello? Who's there?" Kai called out.

The voice, a girl's voice, exclaimed, "I'm stuck in this tree, please help me!"

"Which tree? I can't see you."

"This one!" the girl said as she began shaking a tree branch.

Using his fire as a torch, Kai located the girl in a tree behind him.

"How did you get up there?" he asked.

"Well I didn't put myself in the tree on purpose now did I. I was aiming for the ground and missed."

"Riiiiiight," Kai said. "Jump, I'll catch you."

Without hesitation, the girl leapt from the tree, and true to his word, Kai caught her. Patting his shoulder, the girl who appeared to be slightly older than the ninja hopped out of Kai's arms. "Ha, thanks for catching me, I knew you would."

With a skip in her step, the girl got into the car, the ninja's car, and sat in the driver's seat. Kai stood rooted to the ground in stunned silence for a minute before he could fully comprehend what happened. When the car was not driven off, Kai walked up to the driver window and knocked on the glass. Acting as if she had just been pulled over by a cop for speeding, the girl unconcernedly rolled down the window.

"What's up?" she asked, sounding childlike.

"What's up?" Kai repeated, clearly agitated. "Just what do you think you're doing?"

"Oh!" she exclaimed, "right of course, where are my manners! My name's Rayla and of course I already know you, Kai."

"You—what?" Kai was more confused than ever. "How do you know me? What were you doing in that tree?"

"I told you, Kai, I didn't mean to get stuck in the tree, but that doesn't matter anyway. I still helped you."

"Helped me? Helped me from what?"

"Well you're no longer thinking bad thoughts, are you?"

"Bad thoughts? How—? What—?" Kai could not seem to decide what topic to address first. "Why do you care what I'm thinking?"

"Because I'm your guardian angel, Kai," the girl stated as if it were something obvious.

Kai blinked in confusion.

"My _what_?"

 **Hey so you probably thought I abandoned this fanfic and to be honest so did I... But then recently some of my older stories were getting likes and I thought, you know, I want to finish this one. So that's the plan. I'm sorry that it's been so long!**

 **Also I think I'm going to change the title of the fanfic so that's a heads up. Although I'm very much drawing reference from the movie** ** _It's a Wonderful Life_** **, that title doesn't really fit my story.**

 **But thank you everyone who reviewed and favourited! It's so nice to look back on all the reviews and they are immensely appreciated in all forms. So shoutout to The Mayor of Ninjago City, TheAmberShadow, and Kairocksrainbow for reviewing!**

 **Have a great Halloween and God bless!**


	4. Chapter 4

"I'm your guardian angel, Kai. Sheesh you act as if you've never heard of me," Rayla said.

"I—" Kai was at a loss for words, "this is a joke, right?"

"I can assure you this is no joke, sweetheart, now get in the car," Rayla said, her thick curls bouncing as she gestured to the passenger's seat. (a/n before you hate me, Rayla is not a love interest and is using "sweetheart" as a common term)

Somewhere inside Kai's mind, red alarms were flashing, telling him not to get into the car with the weird, deranged woman, yet another part of him fully trusted this strange person. So, without any further questioning, Kai got into the car without even protesting that he was not the one driving.

"So uh—what are we doing?" Kai asked.

"You tell me, hon. I just come when I'm called," Rayla said.

"Called? I didn't call anyone."

"No, your friends called for me. They're worried about you, you know."

"My friends?" Kai's face lit up at the prospect of knowing where they were. "Have you seen them? Are they alright? How do you know them?"

"Woah slow down, I just heard that they were concerned for you. That's all I know, I don't know where they're at, sorry," Rayla said warmly.

Disappointment began to settle back into Kai.

"Why were the others concerned about me? It's me that should be concerned about them!"

"Well that's just it," Rayla began, "they know how you can get when you're on your own."

"But they didn't tell you where they were or who they were with?"

"Like I said, Kai, I'm your guardian angel, not their's. I heard their concerns for you and that's all."

"That doesn't even make sense, but whatever. How are you even going to help me anyway? I've already messed up. You missed your opportunity a few years back when you should have stopped Wu from making me a part of this team."

"Oh, Kai, you don't really want that," Rayla said.

"Um yeah, I'm pretty sure I do. That would have been best for the team; for the whole of Ninjago. The world would be a much better place without me in it constantly messing things up."

As if she had a long beard, Rayla rubbed her chin with her fingers, deep in thought. "Hmm, yeah that could work. That just might work."

"What could—" Kai began before he was cut off.

"Hold onto your seat, Kai. We're going for a ride."

After only two seconds to question what Rayla meant by her statement, Kai was jerked back into his seat as the car began to quickly accelerate. It felt like they were going straight and Rayla never turned her wheel, but the trees along the road were quickly blurring by them, soon moulding into nothing but a single blur. The red ninja felt like he was going to be sick, unlike Rayla who seemed to be having the time of her life, cheering as the car went faster and faster beyond its usual capacities.

When he could not stand it any longer, Kai squeezed his eyes shut and the sound of their surroundings rushing by them came to an abrupt stop along with the car. He dared to peak out of his one eye and everything appeared to be fairly normal. Rayla was fluffing her hair, still grinning; she had driven them—no, teleported them?—to Kai's old hometown.

As her excitement was finally dying down, Rayla spoke to Kai, "Come on, I wanna show you something."

Getting out of the car—legs shaking a bit from the uncommon ride—Kai followed Rayla up his hill to where his father's shop, The Four Blacksmiths, stood or where it should have stood. In its place was a building that looked as if it were haunted (and Kai would know considering he was in a haunted building before); the building stood a ghost of what it used to be. Most, if not all, of the windows were broken out; the roof was beginning to cave in, and it appeared that no one had gone into the shop and Kai's old home for years. A thick layer of dust was formed on all the surfaces and delicately woven spiderwebs were in every corner.

"What did you do to our house?" Kai said angrily.

Rayla held up her hands in defence. "Woah there, take it easy, don't look at me. You, or rather the lack of you, were the one who did this."

"How could _I_ have done this? _You_ made this happen with your weird, magical car ride! I should have known the whole 'guardian angel' thing was a lie."

"Okay, first of all, I'm not lying. And second of all, this was what you wanted. Your wish has been granted, you were never born."

"Are you daft?" Kai asked. "I'm standing right here, of course I was born."

"I know your standing right there. I'm giving you the opportunity to see what the world would really be like if you hadn't been born," Rayla said.

Realisation suddenly hit Kai and his expression turned from one of anger to worry.

"Rayla, where's Nya? If I wasn't born and hadn't become a ninja, she should be living here."

"I—" she began, "you're not going to like it."

"Where's my sister, Rayla? Take me to my sister!"

"Okay—but don't say I didn't warn you."

 **Thank you all for reading and I hope you'll stick around to read the rest eventually! Please review to tell me what you think and because reviews are always greatly appreciated. I got lots of follows for this story last time and it would be awesome to hear why you guys are (or even aren't) enjoying the story!**

 **Shoutout to RandomDragon, GreenFlamd-Lover-Forever, and Bluepaw265 for reviewing! I really appreciated that. Everyone can thank them for giving me incentive to continue.**

 **RandomDragon: Thanks! Your idea reminds me of the Maze Runner :)**

 **God bless!**


	5. Chapter 5

Kai and Rayla pulled up to a tall, brick building just outside Ninjago City, the red ninja not saying a word the whole ride there.

"Well, here she is," Rayla said in an uncharacteristically serious tone.

Kai practically flew out of the car, barely waiting to park, but froze when he saw the plaque on the building which read "Miss Richard's Home for Girls." Mind racing with a million ideas of what that could mean, Kai ran up the stone stairs and pounded on the door.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" a woman's voice called out from inside, however this did not cease Kai's knocking.

The door was finally opened by a woman who appeared to be in her forties. She was apparently expecting someone other than Kai because her expression immediately fell when she saw him.

Before the woman even had to chance to speak, Kai tried to peer over her to look into the building and said, "Is Nya there? I need to see her!"

"And who might be asking?" the woman replied, sounding as if this were not her first time dealing with strange teenage boys at the door.

"I'm Kai, Kai Smith, her brother."

The woman placed her hands on her hips. "Her brother?"

"Yeah, now let me see her." Kai was growing increasingly impatient.

"I'm sorry, young man, I'm not letting you in. Have a good evening."

"But—" it was too late, the woman had already shut the door.

Hands clenched in fists, Kai turned around to face Rayla who had since gotten out of the car.

"Do you mind telling me what's going on here?"

"I told you you wouldn't like it, Kai. This is where Nya lives now in this world without you."

Kai let out a shaky breath and sunk to sit on the steps of the building. "How did this happen?"

"Well when your—her—parents disappeared, you weren't there to look after and take care of Nya. She was too young to live on her own, and without any other family to turn to, Nya had to live in the Ninjago City orphanages."

Looking down at his hands, Kai said, "But she'll be an adult soon, can't she leave then and go live with the other ninja and Wu or at least Jay and his parents?"

"Don't you see," Rayla began, "without you Nya never met the other ninja, never met Jay, and never became a ninja herself."

"Well I—"

Just then the front door opened again and out stepped Nya, looking practically the same.

Kai gasped. "Nya . . ."

The girl gave Kai a weird look and quickly slipped past him and began walking down the street. Kai could not believe his own sister didn't recognise him.

"Nya, wait up!" Kai called after her.

Nya looked back uncomfortably and quickened her pace. However there was no way Kai was going to let his sister get away; she had to know who he was. The red ninja ran to his sister who then began to run away from Kai, but Kai was faster and grabbed her arm.

"Nya, please, don't you know who I am?"

Struggling to get free from Kai, Nya looked frantic. "Let go of me! Help! Help!"

"Nya, it's me, I'm your brother!"

Nya screamed and kicked her brother until she finally broke free from his grasp and ran away as fast as she could. Pursuing after her, Kai ignored her screams and did not seem to wonder how it was odd that there were no police around. In fact, no one seemed willing to help Nya who was frantically running from Kai. The red ninja was not going to give up. He would get his sister to remember him and this whole nightmare would be over—

Kai stopped dead in his tracks. Now that he was in the city, he noticed more than just his house and sister were changed. The whole city had changed as if all the life and happiness had been sucked out of it. Despite many people walking around, the city felt dead and eerie like something out of a bad dream. Forgetting Nya, Kai ran deeper and deeper into the city and the farther he ran, the more dread he felt. The glow of the lights seemed to turn purple and the closer to the centre he got, the less and less people he saw. Instead, there were skeletons and serpentine and stone warriors walking about and the few humans who were out, walked at a brisk pace with their heads lowered.

All of this was enough itself to take in and that's when Kai saw it, a giant statue of Lord Garmadon placed in the centre of the city.

"What happened?" he muttered to himself.

Kai ran up to the first living thing he saw, one of the skeletons. "Where's Ninjago City. What happened here?"

"Ninjago City?" the skeleton scoffed, "hasn't been called that years. This is Garmadon City now and it's best you not forget that."

And with that, the skeleton left Kai to stand in his confusion and growing anxiety.

 **Hey, so what do you think? Like it? Hate it? Leave a review and let me know! Constructive criticism is always welcome. Has anyone seen the movie** ** _It's a Wonderful Life_** **?**

 **Thank you everyone for reading and a special thank you for those who reviewed: RandomDragon, skylor chan, NinjagymnastgirlK, LEGOninjagoKai, and GreenFlame-Lover-Forver! Your comments really mean a lot to me :)**

 **RandomDragon: I would highly recommend the Maze Runner book series and thank you!**

 **Hope you have a good day and God bless!**


	6. Chapter 6

This was all so ridiculous, Kai thought. There was no way so much could have changed in Ninjago just from him not being born, he was only one person after all. How could this be really happening? Kai wished he was having a bad dream, but he could not be. As unbelievable everything going on was, it was real, at least in this reality.

"You see, Kai, one person can make quite a difference," Rayla said, seeming to appear out of thin air and giving Kai quite a fright.

The red ninja took a minute to compose himself again.

"This is unbelievable," Kai gestured to his surroundings, "How did this happen? What did I ever do that prevented this?"

"Honey, you are a silly, silly human. Do you forget that you're a ninja?"

"No, but there's still the others, Lloyd, Cole, Zane, and Jay. They're the ones who never seem to mess up anyway. I'm sure they'd do a fine job with the world saving without me."

"You mean the other ninja Cole, Zane, and Jay," Rayla said.

Kai looked questioningly at Rayla. "No . . . I mean the ninja _Lloyd_ , Cole, Zane, and Jay. What are you getting at?"

"Well, you see, in this reality Lloyd is dead."

"W—what?" Kai was dumbfounded. "But I—. How—? When—?"

"Remember that day you unlocked your true potential?" Rayla explained.

"Yeah?"

"You were the one who realised it was your duty to protect the green ninja, Kai. You were the one who remained in the volcano and rescued Lloyd. The others couldn't reach Lloyd and you protected him. Remove you from the picture and there was nobody to save Lloyd from the erupting volcano. The green ninja prematurely died because you weren't there to save him, Kai, and without the green ninja, nobody stood in the way of Lord Garmadon and his allies. He was able to easily take over Ninjago, resulting in the mess before you. Don't you see how you impact so many lives, Kai?"

The red ninja didn't know what to think, his head was a swarming hive of different emotions. He felt anger and confusion and sadness, but most of all Kai felt stupid and ashamed. It was his ignorance and selfishness that made him want this for Ninjago. Kai felt selfish for wanting to give all responsibility for saving Ninjago to the other ninja while he took the easy way out and quit. This was not what he had wanted or envisioned.

However, there was a reason Kai was the ninja or fire. His stubbornness and ego had a louder voice than rational thinking sometimes.

But wait, a piece of Kai's mind told him, what if this wasn't his fault? This whole scenario could be a lie made by Rayla. There was no way he was responsible for this. Rayla was some sort of hypnotist that made him see all of these crazy and unrealistic sights. There was no way Kai was believing this scenario without a fight.

" _You_ , this is all _your_ fault! Change it back. Now!"

Rayla was taken aback by the red ninja's sudden outburst. "Kai, this is what you wanted. I've given you a great gift few receive, the ability to see what the world would be like without you."

The red ninja's famous temper started to rise. "Okay, I've seen it. Now change it back."

"Like I said before, I'm your guardian angel, honey, and I won't change it back until you learn your lesson. This is after all what you wanted?"

Yelling in frustration, Kai exclaimed, "You're lying! This isn't what I wanted; you're just trying to mix up my words."

"Kai, sweetheart, I think you need to calm down. You're making a scene and letting your temper control your thoughts."

"You're crazy!"

That was apparently the last straw for Rayla. She pursed her lips and stood up tall. "Fine then, if I'm crazy, then I'll just leave you here until you can see that you're an important part of this world."

"Don't you dare leave me!"

Kai moved to grab Rayla to ensure she would not leave, but it was too late. With a cheeky smile, Rayla waved goodbye to Kai and vanished just as he was about to get ahold of her. The red ninja ended up looking as if he were hugging himself.

"Oh great," he muttered to himself, "now I'm stuck in this nightmare place which isn't my fault by the way." The last bit Kai yelled up at the sky.

"Hey!" a voice called out. "Hey, you!"

Kai put his tantrum on hold to look for the source of the voice. Who Kai found was none other than Scales himself slithering his way on over to the ninja.

"You, ninja, stop there!"

At those words, Kai was elated. Finally someone recognised and remembered him. Scales would not have been his first choice, but Kai supposed the Serpentine had changed for the better the last time they met.

"Scales, you're sure a sight for sore eyes. Maybe you can tell me what's really going on here."

However, the snake showed no sign of familiarity and continued to slither closer to Kai.

"Uh, Scales?"

Without hesitation, the snake bashed the side of Kai's head with his tail once he was close enough. As it was completely unexpected and done with such force, the red ninja was knocked to the ground and was only groggily aware of Scales punching the same spot again before everything blacked out and Kai went unconscious.

 **Thanks for reading! Was that confusing at all? I had trouble trying to word that right so I'd like to hear your opinion. Also could you tell me how the dialogue flow was? I like to think it's alright, but since I wrote it, it's clear to me what's going on.**

 **Shoutout to RandomDragon, The Mayor of Ninjago City, skylor chan, SpitfirewaterNinja, LEGOninjagokai, and MasterofCupcakes for reviewing! You guys are awesome and help me continue to write.**

 **RandomDragon: Your story sounds really interesting. I'd love to read it when you finish!**

 **Have a good Thanksgiving and God bless!**


	7. Chapter 7

"Shh, he's waking up!"

Kai barely made out a voice through the ringing in his ears as he came back to his senses. First he felt a cold, hard floor beneath him, but then Kai became strongly aware of his splitting headache when he opened his eyes. After a moment of readjustment, Kai gradually began to become aware of what the voices were saying.

"Hey man, you okay?"

The red ninja pushed himself up. "Yeah, I just— Wait, Jay?"

Jay, the one who had spoken to him, eyed Kai suspiciously. "Hey, how do you know my name?"

"Of course I know your name, Jay. And I know Cole too."

Cole, who was also there, exchanged glances with Jay. "Listen, man, we don't know who you are."

"Ugh, of course you don't. I'm still in this nightmare realm!" Kai said in frustration, purposely banging his head against bars. Wait, bars? "Hold on," he said, "are we in jail?!"

Cole rolled his eyes. "Well look who's catching on. There's no use trying to be a hero around here, those days are over. All you'll get is a lifetime in this quaint place."

"What do you mean there's no use?" Kai said. "Do you guys even hear yourselves? How could you two give up so easily? You're ninja for crying out loud!"

"Uh correction," Jay said with a point of his finger, "we _used_ to be ninja."

"Yeah, now we're just some average guys stuck in jail," Cole added with a humph.

Kai did not seem satisfied with that answer. "Well I'm busting us out of here so this mess can be fixed."

"And just who do you think you are, thinking that this can be 'fixed'?" Jay asked.

"Listen, you may not know or remember me, but I'm Kai, the fire ninja." Kai then pointed to Jay, "You're the ninja of lighting and the son of Ed and Edna from the junkyard. Your favourite colour is blue and you used to go to the mother and son roller skating derby."

Jay's mouth was left agape with a look of utter confusion and almost fear on his face. How could this seemingly random person, Kai, know all this about him? He was just about to pour out a torrent of questions upon the spiky haired lad, but Kai shushed him and gestured to Cole.

"Cole, your father **[a/n does his dad have a name?]** was a member of the Royal Blacksmiths and wanted you to go to the Marty Oppenheimer School of Performing Arts but you instead dropped out. Oh, and you say you're not scared of anything, but really you're scared of ghosts and dragons."

Cole looked equally as astounded as Jay. "How did you—?"

"Listen, guys, I'm from an alternate timeline or something sciencey like that where things are a lot different. We're all friends and things are pretty great, well, at least compared to this. The lady who brought me here baled on me and said she wouldn't fix things until I realised I was important or something stupid like that. So I really need you to believe what I'm saying so we can fix things here. Maybe then I can somehow get back and away from this disaster."

There was a moment of silence where Kai was certain he could feel himself begin to sweat. He honestly did not know what to do and getting Cole and Jay to help him fix things seemed like his only option. If they would not help him, Kai supposed he could always try to escape and fix things on his own, but that would be much more difficult and—

"Yeah, I believe you," Jay said, slicing through Kai's train of thought.

"You do?" Kai said hopefully.

"You _do_?" Cole said questioningly.

"Yeah, sure I do."

Cole could not believe what he was hearing. "Look, Jay, you're my best friend—"

"I'm your only friend," Jay said with a smirk.

Cole sighed. " _But_ don't you think this guy sounds just a bit crazy?"

"Well yeah, maybe just a bit, but I think we could use a little crazy right now. We haven't had crazy since..." Jay trailed off.

"Since Zane," Cole said wistfully.

"What—what happened to Zane?" Kai's expression fell.

"Well Zane kind of reminded me of you, ready to be a ninja and a bit reckless," Cole said.

Kai laughed to himself. Zane? Reckless? Boy things are strange in this timeline.

"Yeah," Jay added, "he always said it was his purpose or destiny or something like that to protect those who can't protect themselves, so that's what he did, or at least tried to do. Until he was caught and scrapped."

And that was it, that was the final straw. Kai had heard enough. He was willing to risk anything to somehow escape this horrible place and go back to the Ninjago he knew. The Ninjago where Nya was his confident and strong sister, the Ninjago where Lloyd and Zane were alive, and the Ninjago that was ruled by good, not evil.

Kai was filled with determination. "Guys, we're gonna bust out of here, reclaim Ninjago for good and then hopefully I can get back in my own place."

Jay looked equally as determined, but Cole? Not so much. " _Yeah_ , but didn't you say that the lady who brought you here—"

"Cole," the red ninja interjected, "I honestly don't care about what Rayla said. Everything she said made no sense so we're going to do this my way, and tonight we escape."

 **Hey so sorry it's been so long! With everything going on I kind of forgot to update... But I hope everyone had a great holiday!**

 **Quick question: was there too much dialogue? I kind of felt like there was but didn't know how to resolve that. Please give a review and tell me what you thought of that and the chapter in general :)**

 **Shoutout to RandomDragon, MoC, Bluepaw265, SpitfirewaterNinja, Ebony umbreon, iidaemii03, and GreenFlame-Lover-Forever for reviewing and a huge thank you to everyone who has followed/favourited! That really inspires me to continue**

 **RandomDragon: if no one had discovered the green ninja scroll, the prophecy would still be there to come true**

 **God bless and happy 2018!**


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